Brazil has turned a page on years of crisis, the country's new leader Michel Temer said today as he made his international presidential debut in China only a day after being sworn in to replace Dilma Rousseff following a bitter impeachment fight.
	"Even though we suffered from political and economic upheaval, as well as economic downturn, this page has been turned," Temer said in a speech in the Chinese commercial hub Shanghai.
	"Brazil has put all the economic and political instability it suffered in the past few years behind us."
	Temer, 75, came to China for the G20 summit which starts in nearby Hangzhou on Sunday, and is seeking to consolidate his position after senators in Brasilia voted Wednesday to convict Rousseff on charges of having illegally manipulated government accounts.
	His Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping called him an "old friend" when they met on the shores of the city's landmark West Lake, adding: "China and Brazil make up together the East and West's two biggest ...

Brazil has 'turned a page': new President Temer

PTI Automatic

Samsung will halt sales of its latest flagship smartphone and recall millions of units, it said today, after faulty batteries caused some handsets to explode in a massive blow to the South Korean electronics giant's reputation.
	Users began posting photos and videos on social media late last month showing the charred Galaxy Note 7 with part of its 5.7-inch touchscreen burnt and melted, saying it suddenly caught fire.
	Samsung, the world's largest smartphone maker, said it would recall 2.5 million units shipped globally to countries including the US and South Korea, and offer new devices to existing users.
	It is the first large-scale recall of one of Samsung's top of the range phones.
	"We have received several reports of battery explosions on the Note 7 that was officially launched on August 19... And it has been confirmed that it was a battery cell problem," Koh Dong-Jin, the head of Samsung's mobile business, told reporters.
	"We are deeply sorry for causing concern... And causing .

Samsung to suspend Galaxy Note 7 sales over battery explosions

President Barack Obama went off the beaten track -- way off -- to a newly expanded marine reserve on an atoll in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, part of an effort to polish his environmental legacy.
	Obama flew three hours west of his native Honolulu to Midway Atoll, on the far northwestern tip of the Hawaiian island chain.
	The atoll is situated at the heart of Papahanaumokuakea, a vast Pacific marine reserve given protected status by then- president George W Bush in 2006.
	Obama recently quadrupled its size to make it the world's largest marine reserve, home to 7,000 marine species, including many endangered birds as well as the Hawaiian monk seal and black coral, which can live for 4,500 years.
	"This is going to be a precious resource for generations to come," Obama told reporters on Midway's Turtle Beach.
	All the atoll's 40 inhabitants -- mostly US Fish and Wildlife Service staff -- greeted him.
	Until recently, the area was perhaps best known to military history ...

Obama highlights environment on Pacific atoll

A Japanese man who came face-to-face with a snarling bear took things into his own hands - and unleashed his karate skills on the beast.
	The 63-year-old was fishing in a mountain creek when the 190-centimetre creature set upon him in what he said was an unprovoked attack.
	In scenes seemingly reminiscent of Leonardo Di Caprio's epic tussle with an angry bear in the Oscar-winning film "The Revenant" -- Atsushi Aoki was bitten and scratched repeatedly, including on his head.
	"The bear was so strong, and it knocked me down," Aoki told Tokyo Broadcasting System.
	"It turned me over and bit me right here," he added, pointing to his bandaged leg.
	But instead of trying to outrun the beast - an Asian black bear - the fisherman decided he would use his well-honed karate skills.
	After assuming a fighting stance with his right fist in front of him, Aoki jabbed at his attacker's eyes, which sent the creature scrambling away into the woods.
	"I thought it's either 'I kill him or he kills me,'" 

Right to bear arms: Japan man wins ursine karate battle

At least four people have been killed in thunderstorms and flash flooding in northern Iran, state media reported today.
	A woman, 70, died after being struck by lightning while working outside in Golestan province, the website of state television channel IRIB said.
	Three others -- two parents and their child -- drowned in flash floods near a burst river bank, it added.
	Storms swept across provinces in the north and northwest yesterday and the inclement weather continued into today.
	"Severe storms have greatly damaged more than 900 houses in the city and villages and 100 workshops in Amol," official IRNA news agency quoted local governor Ahmad Monfared as saying.
	Amol is in Mazandaran province, on the shore of the Caspian Sea, where wind gusts reaching 130 kilometres per hour cut power for a quarter of the population, Mizan news agency reported.
	Officials have warned that the storms could reach the northeastern Khorasan Razavi province by later today, Mizan added.
	Roads were ...

Storms, flash floods kill 4 in Iran

Dubai has unveiled its first driverless bus service, launching a month-long trial period for the electric vehicle with a view to expanding it across the futuristic Gulf city state.
	The 10-seat vehicle made its first trip yesterday along a 700-metre stretch of road in downtown Dubai, near to the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest tower.
	Developed jointly by French group Easy Mile and Dubai-based Omnix, the minibus is powered by an electric motor and can hit speeds of 40 kilometres per hour.
	But, thanks to cutting-edge guidance technology, its developers say the bus can adapt its speed to the surrounding environment and even come to a complete halt if a pedestrian were to cross its path.
	It can be programmed to navigate between Dubai's main tourist attractions, including the Burj Khalifa, the Dubai Mall, Dubai Opera and the Souk al-Bahar shopping centre, the emirate's Road Transport Authority (RTA) said in a statement.
	The test run was "the first and very important stage in our ...

Dubai debuts driverless minibus

An award-winning Bangladeshi journalist who edits a specialist education website has been arrested for allegedly defaming a powerful former official, police said today.
	Police detained Siddiqur Rahman Khan for publishing what it described as multiple "fictitious, false and shameful" news on the DainikShiksha.Com portal, Dhaka police spokesman Masudur Rahman told AFP.
	Khan is the latest in a string of journalists to have been detained by Bangladeshi authorities under the provisions of a controversial law which critics say gives the government a free rein to crack down on dissent.
	"Officers from the cyber crime unit arrested Khan on Thursday after Professor Fahima Khatun filed the case under section 57 of the information communication technology act," said Rahman.
	Local newspapers said Khatun, a former head of a government department that regulates tens of thousands of schools and intermediate colleges, is married to a ruling party lawmaker and is a sister of a cabinet ...

Bangladesh editor arrested for defaming ex-schools chief

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, who has railed against the United Nations for criticising his government, has declined a request to meet UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, officials have said.
	UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric yesterday said that "contacts were had to try to set up a time" for a meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN forum meeting in Laos next week, but that "no time could be agreed upon."
	A foreign affairs spokesman in Manila said that 11 heads of state had requested meetings with Duterte during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting, and that he had said yes to nine of them.
	"Please understand that he cannot accept them all and no one should impute any negatives on those he could not accommodate," said Charles Jose in Manila.
	Duterte's spokesman Ernesto Abella said the September 6-8 ASEAN meeting in Vientiane was "extraordinarily full" and that "a number of possible meetups have to be presently foregone."
	Duterte has launched several ...

Philippines' Duterte declines meeting with UN's Ban

Russian President Vladimir Putin in an interview published today urged compromise to find agreement on an oil production freeze to combat a global supply glut.
	"We consider that it is the right decision for world markets, that's the first thing," Putin told Bloomberg News.
	The globe's major oil producers have been unable to strike a deal on freezing output due mainly to a dispute between Saudi Arabia and Iran over Tehran's desire to boost levels after the lifting of sanctions.
	"I think that in fact from the point of view of economic expediency and logic it would be correct to find some sort of compromise, I am sure that everyone understands this," Putin said.
	Oil markets rallied last month on hopes that producing countries will limit supply when they meet later this month in Algeria.
	But so far nations such as Iran and Iraq show no signs of a willingness to freeze output, raising the prospect of another failure.
	Russian energy minister Alexander Novak told Russian news agency ...

Putin calls for 'compromise' towards oil freeze

At least four people were killed and 16 wounded today when blasts, including at a weapons storage facility, rocked northeastern neighbourhoods of Baghdad, security sources said.
	Accounts of the incident differed and it was not immediately clear whether the blasts were accidental or caused by an attack.
	The largest blast sent a ball of fire into the sky at a weapons depot used by the Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary organisation in the Obeidi neighbourhood, on the outskirts of the city.
	"The blast took place in a weapons storage facility on a Hashed al-Shaabi base," Ahmed al-Assadi, the organisation's spokesman, told AFP without elaborating.
	The Hashed al-Shaabi is a large paramilitary force which is nominally under the authority of the prime minister but is dominated by powerful Iran-backed Shiite militias.
	Several other blasts were reported in nearby neighbourhoods of northeastern Baghdad.
	An interior ministry official said they were caused by rockets but it was not clear whether .

Four killed as blasts rock Baghdad

Turkey removed nearly 8,000 security personnel from duty, according to state media, as the purge continued of those suspected of links to the July 15 failed coup.
	A total of 7,669 police were removed along with 323 personnel in the gendarmerie, which looks after domestic security, late yesterday.
	Turkey accuses US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and his Hizmet (service) movement of ordering and conducting the failed putsch which left 240 dead excluding 24 coup-plotters.
	Ankara also accuses him of running a "parallel state" and his followers of infiltrating state institutions.
	Gulen strongly denies all accusations.
	Turkey embarked on an all-out purge of state bodies in the wake of the coup to rid the country of what Erdogan calls the "virus" of Gulen's influence.
	The latest purge was not just limited to the security forces. Nearly 520 people were also removed from the religious affairs directorate, according to the official gazette.
	Yesterday, 543 prosecutors and judges had .

Turkey removes 8,000 security personnel in latest purge

An "angry" giant saltwater crocodile hunting cows at a northern Australia cattle station has been captured and relocated to a breeding farm, authorities and reports said.
	Wildlife officers had laid a trap in a waterway near where the "saltie" was reported to have been taking cattle at the station in the island continent's tropical north.
	But they had to wait several days before it could be wrangled out of the enclosure earlier this week as it was too "angry", the NT News reported.
	"Got a big one," an official exclaimed in a video posted on Facebook by the Northern Territory Police on Wednesday as he peered into a cage floating in the water where the croc was trapped.
	It took several rangers and officers to haul the 4.33-metre predator onto land before it was tied up and taken to a Darwin farm, with police quipping on the social media site that it was "just another day in the outback".
	"It was a bit of an unorthodox extraction from the cage due to the situation where it was in a ..

Australia police capture giant cattle-eating croc

Two men died after overnight clashes in Gabon's capital Libreville between security forces and demonstrators protesting after President Ali Bongo was declared the winner of a contested election, witnesses said.
	Bekam Ella Edzang, a 27-year-old law student, died of his wounds in hospital today morning after he was shot in the abdomen, an AFP journalist said.
	"He was injured at around 9:00 pm (local time) by the Republican Guard, who were firing tear gas and live bullets," a childhood friend of the victim who identified himself only as Geraud told AFP at the hospital.
	In the Libreville district of Nzeng Ayong, another AFP correspondent saw dozens of protesters carrying the body of a 30-year-old wrapped in a flag of the central African nation.
	His mother said he was shot in front of his home last night.
	The latest deaths take the toll up to five killed since riots and protests broke out on Wednesday after Bongo was declared the winner of the weekend presidential vote.
	His main ...

Two killed in Gabon after clashes with police overnight

Australia's oldest surviving Test cricketer, Len Maddocks, has passed away aged 90, Cricket Australia said on Friday.
	   Maddocks, a batsman and wicket-keeper, played seven Tests for Australia between 1954 and 1956, and managed the Australian cricket team on its 1977 tour of England.
	   He played 112 first-class matches, representing Victoria and Tasmania, and was also a national selector and a Victorian Cricket Association board director.
	   "Len made an outstanding contribution to cricket in his lifetime within state and national ranks, both as a player and administrator," Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland said.
	   "We were deeply saddened to hear of Len's passing this week and are truly appreciative of his dedication to assist in building the game to what it is today.

Australia's oldest surviving Test player dies

Mother Teresa, the revered but controversial nun whose work with the dying and the destitute made her an icon of 20th Century Christianity, will be declared a saint today.
	The elevation of the Nobel Peace Prize winner to Catholicism's celestial pantheon comes on the eve of the 19th anniversary of her death in the Kolkata slums with which she is synonomous.
	Teresa worked with the poorest of the poor in the sprawling metropolis formerly known as Calcutta for nearly four decades, having initially come to eastern India as a missionary teacher with Ireland's Loreto order.
	Born to Kosovar Albanian parents in what is now Macedonia in 1910, Teresa died in 1997. By then she was a household name around the world and also a citizen of India, the adopted homeland that embraced the diminutive and doggedly determined sister to the extent that she was granted a state funeral.
	Her canonisation has been completed in unusually quick time on the back of the extraordinary popularity she enjoyed ...

Catholic icon Mother Teresa to be proclaimed a saint

Explosions rocked northeastern neighbourhoods of Baghdad today, killing at least two people and wounding 11, police said.
	It was not immediately clear what the target was but a police source said mortar rounds or rockets hit three areas near the vast Shiite neighbourhood of Sadr City.
	"We have two killed and 11 wounded so far," a police colonel said.
	The blasts came as tens of thousands of Shiite faithful from across Iraq and abroad converged on the Kadhimiyah shrine in Baghdad to commemorate the death of Mohammed al-Jawad, the ninth Shiite imam.

Two killed as blasts rock Baghdad: police

Bangladesh today named former Sri Lankan cricketer Thilan Samaraweera as their batting consultant for next month's home series against England.
	Samaraweera's appointment came a day after former West Indies great Courtney Walsh agreed a three-year term to become the specialist pace bowling coach of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB).
	BCB president Nazmul Hassan said the board was in the process of appointing more coaching staff ahead of a flurry of international cricket, including a tour to New Zealand in December-January and maiden Test in India in February.
	"We have confirmed the service of Samaraweera as our batting consultant for England series," Hassan told reporters.
	"Fielding coach Richard Halsall will now work as the assistant coach. We are also looking for a spin bowling coach."
	Bangladesh recently terminated the contract of the national team's Sri Lankan assistant coach Ruwan Kalpage after he failed to turn up for a training camp.
	England will arrive in Dhaka on ...

Bangladesh hire Samaraweera as batting guru

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was keen to resolve a territorial dispute with Japan ahead of talks today with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, although a solution appears far off.
	Tokyo-Moscow relations are hamstrung by a row dating back to the end of World War II when Soviet troops seized the southernmost islands in the Pacific Kuril chain, known as the Northern Territories in Japan.
	"We are not talking about some kind of exchange or some kind of sale," Putin said in an interview with Bloomberg News.
	"We are talking about finding a solution where neither party will feel ... Defeated or a loser."
	The tensions have prevented the countries from signing a peace treaty formally ending wartime hostilities, hindering trade and investment ties.
	Putin said that signing a peace treaty with Japan was a "key issue" and that Moscow "would very much like to find a solution to this problem with our Japanese friends."
	Abe's visit to Russia -- his second this year -- comes days after ...

Putin says keen to solve Japan island row

Uzbek President Islam Karimov, who has dominated the ex-Soviet nation for 25 years, was in critical condition after his health worsened "sharply" following a stroke, a statement said today.
	"Dear compatriots, it is with a very heavy heart that we inform you that yesterday the condition of our president deteriorated sharply and, according to doctors, it is evaluated as critical," the statement posted on a government website said.
	The terse announcement -- which was also carried in state newspapers and television on Friday -- confirmed that Karimov, 78, was hospitalised last Saturday following a stroke.
	Speculation over the president's condition has swept the very tightly-controlled Central Asian nation since officials first said last Sunday that he had been hospitalised, with opposition media based outside the country claiming that he has already died.
	The veteran leader's youngest daughter Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva on Monday announced on social media that he was in "stable" ...

Uzbekistan leader in 'critical' condition

The death toll from a devastating typhoon in northern Japan rose to 14, officials said today, as another powerful storm approached the country's south.
	Two bodies were found separately near rivers on the island of Hokkaido, a police spokesman told AFP.
	On Thursday evening, police also found a body near a flooded river in the hard hit town of Iwaizumi in the northern part of Honshu island, public broadcaster NHK said.
	Typhoon Lionrock, which packed wind gusts of over 160 kilometres an hour landed on Japan's northern Pacific coast on Tuesday evening, dumping torrential rain over a wide area.
	Overflowing rivers wreaked havoc, stranding many communities in the country's largely agricultural north.
	Iwaizumi was the hardest hit, with 12 people dying in the town, including nine who were buried inside a building of an elderly care facility.
	As of today, more than 1,000 people were still cut off in isolated communities in Iwate prefecture, which includes Iwaizumi, the prefectural ...

Japan typhoon death toll rises to 14

Former Test fast bowler Ryan Harris will join Australia's coaching staff for this month's tour of South Africa, Cricket Australia said on Friday.
	   Harris, 36, will work as a bowling coach alongside newly appointed team assistant coach David Saker.
	   Harris, who took 113 wickets in 27 Tests as a swing bowler, retired last year with persistent knee problems, and was Australia's Under-19 coach last season.
	   "It's great experience to learn from David Saker and Darren Lehmann, I'm really just going to sit back and watch and learn," Harris said.
	   "Eventually I'd like to work my way to the top and become a bowling coach of the Australian team one day. Just like playing, you have to earn your stripes and learn the ropes."
	   Head coach Lehmann said he was excited to have Harris on board in a coaching role.
	   "It's a win-win having two experienced coaches in Ryan and David Saker being able to nurture our young group and we expect a positive response both on and off the field," ...

AFP

AFP

Page 1463 - Afp